Binayak Sen

The world is once again witness to the macabre dance of death in Gaza unleashed by the Israeli aggressors, and once again the news of scores of innocent Palestinian deaths, including those of a number of women and children, is flooding in. The tragedy is compounded many-fold by the conspiracy of...

The present situation in South Bastar is characterised by an infinitude of chronic deprivation, along with a complete absence of political discourse. Instead, we have, on the one hand, the Salwa Judum, which the government dishonestly tries to characterise as a “people’s response to Maoism”, and on...

Conventional approaches to studies on fertility decline have long assumed the primacy of the household as the prime decision-maker. Aspects of the household such as its economic standard of living, social standing, exposure to mass media, work status were some of the influential factors at work on a couple's decision on their number of children. However, individual and household level factors have been unable in several instances to explain the full course of fertility transition seen in some Indian states and Bangladesh, where in some regions fertility transition cuts across socio-economic and cultural boundaries.Gaps in understanding such trends have been as this paper suggests due to the conventional emphasis on household level variables. It argues instead for the need to look at the influence the community plays in south Asia and to understand the levels of interaction that exist at household level and at the community level.

This article highlights aspects of growth and distribution of incomes in rural Bangladesh by focusing on a set of households in the period between 1987-1995. It reports findings on changes in distribution of landholdings, education and occupation of rural workers, structure and distribution of incomes, and income and non-income dimensions of poverty. The article concludes with the view that policies based on providing better access to capital and education for the poor would make a greater impact on poverty reduction than policies based on interventions in the operation of land and labour markets.

﻿Reign of Terror by CISF Binayak Sen WHO is in charge of law and order in Dalli Rajhara? The CISF or the district administration? This question has arisen because of a peculiar series of events in Dalli Rajhara in which the CISF has let loose a reign of terror, and have defied all attempts by the collector and SDM to intervene.

﻿light on only some of the flaws and lapses in design and operation policies while other larger issues are clearly beyond its scope. Even within its own domain it abounds in glaring omissions; the most inexcusable fault being the lack of a detailed and meticulous exploration of the possibility of the presence of hydrogen cyanide gas in the released toxic material. Experiments pertaining to cyanide are quickly glossed over and what is worse no experiments have been carried out in which the gaseous products have been analysed. The report merely mentions that "it was not possible to collect gaseous products and examine them". All we get are promises that the gas phase analysis will be reported at some future time. This is quite shocking because independent medical evidence has pointed to cyanide poisoning as a possible cause of death. Gas phase analysis may have provided some answers relating to the cause of death.

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